Happy Birthday Rylie!

I'm a little late getting this post out, but sometimes, with a busy life, that's just how it goes. Anyway, lets get to it.

Five years ago sweet little Rylie made her grand entrance into the world.

In honor of my little Ry turning 5, I'm going to tell you a few things about her and then post pictures from the last 5 years of her life including several from the last year.

• Her full name is Rylie Jane Tiemann.
• Rylie was a name Shawn and I liked. Jane is my middle name, and my grandmother's middle name, and her initials are RJT which is Shawn's grandpa's initials as well.
• She's a Valentine's baby. 
• She loves playing Minecraft and has even got me playing.  
• She's a great teacher too. She takes her time and is very patient.
• She's a free spirit that does whatever she wants to do, which drives us nutty sometimes, but we love how she isn't usually caught into peer pressure.
• She is one of the funniest people I've ever met.
• She's never in her life met a stranger.
• She's never shy and loves an audience.
• She doesn't really care much about what other people think about her.
• She doesn't like when anyone is mean to anyway else or does something naughty.
• This doesn't mean she isn't ever naughty. She can be quite naughty from time to time.
• She's at that fun age where she puts everyone's business on blast, which can be quite embarrassing.
• Her favorite color is purple.
• She loves super heroes.
• Her favorite TV shows include Lady Bug and Cat Noir, Sofia the First, and Elena of Avalor.
• She loves to play with dolls, especially her new American Girl doll and Wellie Wisher.
• She has a style all her own and most of the time that includes a skirt or dress. 
• Even her hair has a mind of it's own. You can brush it, style it, put it in a pony tail, and in about 5 minutes, it's back to being a mess.
• She loves her dance class and spends so much extra free time showing off her dance moves.
• She loves to do crafts like coloring, painting, playing with play doh, and building stuff with blocks.
• She has an energy and joy that are truly contagious. 
• While she seems like a tough and wild child, she's also extremely anxious.  She has panic attacks quite frequently anymore. I often sit up with her at night, holding her and going through breathing exercises.
• When she was a baby I thought she could see right into my soul. I felt like she knew what I was thinking and feeling no matter how I tried to hide it. Now, with her older, she's my child most in tune with other people's feelings. (I think that's part of why she gets anxiety attacks. Adult feelings are a lot for a 5 year old to handle.)
• She sucks on her left middle and ring finger and then folds rests the back of her right hand against her face. She calls them her "sucking fingers and smelling fingers."
• She used to lick everything. She's gotten better about it lately, but still licks more trees and eats more rocks than I would like. On the bright side, she never gets sick.
• She's child number 3 of 4 in our home, but she never lets herself get forgotten or left out of anything.
• Her favorite animals are unicorns, penguins, cats, and horses, lambs, and any baby animal.
• Her favorite foods are spaghetti, mac and cheese, and strawberries.
• She says she likes skateboarding even though she's never done it before. She thinks she'd be pretty good at it.
• She has the sweetest freckles that go right across her nose and cheeks.
• She wants to be whatever the coolest and most fun job is when she grows up. That's what she told me just now anyway.